Driving home after a week walking and kayaking in Scotland we came over a hill and in front of us was a view of Dumbarton, the Erskine Bridge and in the distance, the City of Glasgow. My partner commented "back to the real world". I experienced an instant sense of rejection. "No, that isn't the real world, the real world is what we're leaving behind".
After all we'd spent a week where our activities were governed by the weather, the wind and rain, the cold, the tides and available daylight. A week where we'd had no internet connection, no mobile or other telephone connection. In the week we'd been walking and seen a sea otter feeding, spotted a beaver dam, watched a red squirrel leap from branch to branch. From our kayaks we'd gazed at terrific views of mountains, lochs and the sea. We'd been able to slowly approach bird colonies and enjoy their intrigue of us, their watching carefully to see if we were predators. We'd sourced local food and visited places recording communities with over 5000 years of connection to the land around us. Isn't this the real world?
Yet we too create our environment, so isn't it just as real? The fact that we have lights, Skype, high speed broadband and smart phones and all the other accoutrements of modern life doesn't make it less real, or does it?
On the train recently I watched as everyone in the carriage seemed to be working on their laptop or using their phone, how people seemed to be working (outside normal work hours) instead of using the journey to relax, to observe, to regenerate. I listened to someone in the hotel reception demanding to know how many TV channels there were, watched others in the gym setting their treadmill so it felt like they were running up hill. How many channels can you watch? Why not run up a hill or at least run outside?
Maybe our everyday life, at home, at work, whether in the city or elsewhere is real, but surely only if we are aware of it. How aware are we of the constant bombardment of advertising, branding, the pressure to comply with a world designed by others? The artificiality of much that surrounds us. How much attention do we pay to the world we would like to have? The world that seems less cluttered, more spacious, where we feel in control of our own lives, manage our own time?
Maybe it is time to use mindfulness practice as a means of viewing what is real in our lives.
